Page 76 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 2

“Betrayal. Every fucking time. They use me. They manipulate me. They take what’s mine and twist it into something I don’t even recognize.”

His voice cracked.

“And now this. Nowyou. The one thing—the oneperson—who was supposed to be mine. That I chose. That I protected. And they couldn’t even let me have that.”

I didn’t know what to say.

Didn’t know how to process any of this.

“Where are we going?” I asked finally.

He took a breath.

Let it out slowly.

“Somewhere we can both think,” he said. “Somewhere they can’t find us. Somewhere I can figure out what the fuck to do next.”

He reached over and took my hand.

His was still shaking, and mine was too.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I’m sorry you’re in the middle of this. I’m sorry for all of it.”

I looked down at our joined hands.

At the blood still on his knuckles.

“I’m scared,” I whispered.

“I know.” His grip tightened. “Me too.”

And somehow, that admission—that vulnerability—made me believe him.

Made me believe that despite everything I’d just witnessed, despite the violence and the rage and the terror?—

He was still the man who’d shown up at my mama’s house with groceries.

Who’d sent a doctor at midnight.

Who’d held my hand during the transfer.

Who’d answered the phone at 2:00 AM when I was breaking down.

That part of him was real.

But so was the man underneath.

And I didn’t know which one scared me more.

Because who was he really? Was he this monster or was he just tired? The most terrifying thought was that he was both. The hero and the villain.

The drive to the undisclosed location was silent.

Not the comfortable kind of silence we’d shared before—this was heavy, suffocating, filled with everything we weren’t saying.

Amai’s eyes stayed fixed on the road.

I eased my hand out of Amai’s and folded it in my lap, staring out the window as the city gave way to highway, then to trees, then to water.